Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. —Henry Fielding

06 April 2006

The World of Apu

Cut out my heart. Satyajit Ray's The World of Apu is the third part of his Apu Trilogy, and I finally watched it this evening. (I watched Part Two on 2/11/06, i.e. a long-ass time ago.) Satyajit Ray is a brilliant man, I've decided. I mean, I guess the world doesn't really need me to add my praise to the loads of adulation he has received as a filmmaker, but this movie (and the trilogy as a whole) is so uncompromising and powerful. I'm too tired to really talk about this, and the movies are kind of draining because they are so effective and heartfelt, but I did finally finish this masterwork and I feel profoundly effected by Ray's storytelling and vision.

The films are in Bengali and have been restored through the efforts of The Merchant and Ivory Foundation as well as the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. The picture on the DVD's is still quite grainy and the image sometimes jumps. The movies are totally worth the sub-par picture quality, and I gather getting images even this clear was quite the ordeal for the restoration team. If you haven't seen Part One of this trilogy (Pather Panchali) you ought to add it to your Netflix queue tout suite.

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